Rhinosinusitis is a common paranasal sinus condition that is generally understood as encompassing sinusitis and/or rhinitis. Typically, rhinosinusitis is characterized by major symptoms such as nasal discharge, nasal obstruction, facial congestion, facial pain/pressure, loss of smell, and fever, and minor symptoms such as headache, ear pain/pressure, halitosis, dental pain, cough, and fatigue.
Allergic rhinitis is associated with a group of symptoms affecting the nose that occurs when an individual with the condition breaths in an allergen, such as dust, mold, or animal dander. Allergens cause the release of histamine, which usually causes sneezing, itchy and watery eyes, runny nose, swelling and inflammation of the nasal passages, an increase in mucus production, and for some individuals, hives or other rashes. Allergic rhinitis due to pollen is commonly known as hay fever.
Current treatments for these and other nasal conditions, as well as certain otic and throat conditions, are primarily pharmaceutical. Drugs in pill form are widely available and easy to take, but can have several drawbacks. An orally administered drug may require considerable time to work through the body to become effective, and may have negative side effects that can impact the daily life of the patient. Also, the drug may need to be taken frequently for continued symptom relief. Nasal, otic, and throat topical drug delivery represents an attractive alternative approach for the treatment of local nasal, otic, and throat diseases. However, current technologies for local drug delivery of drugs in either liquid or powder form, and by spray or direct application, can be limited by poor patient compliance when repeated doses are required, or poor efficacy due to challenges in delivering a drug to more distal sinus and ear anatomies.
When sinusitis is recurrent, functional endoscopic surgery (FESS) can also be used to surgically open a natural ostium of a paranasal sinus in order to improve drainage from the sinus cavity. More recently, minimally invasive systems have been developed that enable the performance of FESS procedures and other ENT surgeries. In some of these minimally invasive systems, a balloon catheter is employed to dilate and/or deliver a therapeutic agent to the paranasal sinuses. Although the minimally invasive systems have led to advancements in sinusitis treatment, their further refinement would be useful. For example, minimally invasive systems with improved ergonomics and reduced profiles, and which integrate multiple system components into a single hand-held device would be useful. Additionally, minimally invasive systems capable of treating multiple paranasal sinuses with a single balloon catheter may be useful. It may also be beneficial to have minimally invasive systems capable of minimizing loss of the therapeutic agent from the balloon during balloon deployment.